


Past Lives

by Keeper_ofaRestlessHeart



Series: Finding Volpina-verse [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, My take on Adrien's mom, Written before I've watched the Christmas special, and all my headcannons will be ruined, and then I will watch the Christmas special, but that's okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 02:53:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8827624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keeper_ofaRestlessHeart/pseuds/Keeper_ofaRestlessHeart
Summary: Plagg tells a story, and Adrien learns some family history.
A.K.A. my take on what happened to Adrien's mom. A part of my Finding Volpina-verse story. Excerpted from a chapter I have yet to post. Takes place when Adrien is 18, post-Identity reveal.





	

“I’m going to tell you another, more interesting story about the past.” Plagg said.

Adrien regarded the cat curiously, waiting. The question was mostly a joke, but Plagg’s tone was unusually serious.

“This might be a terrible mistake, but I’m all for bad decisions, so here it is.” Plagg floated a couple meters away from him, behaving more like Raafa, Chloé’s bee kwami, than an indifferent black cat, which sent a red flag to Adrien’s mind, but not enough that he stopped Plagg from talking. “Didn’t you ever wonder how your father got a hold of the miraculous in the first place? He was fit to be a hero once.”

“We figured that out.” Adrien sighed. “A kwami wont bond with someone who isn’t worthy. Before he went gray, before he’d even met my mom, he must have been.”

“Yeah, and then something corrupted him. A combination of rage, hatred, and sadness.” Plagg said. “My previous owner, she was a lovely lady. She became a doctor when all the world wanted her to do was look pretty in heels. Think of Paris in the 1920s, of smooth jazz and an entire generation angry at the world. That’s what my owner  was like when she found me—angry and determined.

“Master Fu was younger then. Not as young as he would have to be to look the age he does, but he was young. The Guardian’s magic has always been special in terms of time. He aged prematurely, but he also ages slower.” Plagg scratched his ear with a paw and shook his head, as if reminding himself to get back on topic. “Anyway, this woman was unafraid to run around in stilettos, pants, and a lovely cloche hat. She lived her life and grew up with the miraculous, Became a doctor, got married, and had three children, exactly in that order. Survived the Nazi occupation, although one of her children didn’t. The two that were left, one of them followed her mother’s footsteps and became a doctor, a surgeon even. Had a daughter of his own.

“This man was always busy at the hospital, and so his daughter would be shipped off to her grandmother’s often. To entertain her wide-eyed little granddaughter, the lovely lady would tell her stories.” Every time Plagg said the words ‘lovely lady,’ it was like he was recalling a fond memory. “The lovely lady would tell adventure stories of Paris in an older time. _They were just stories,_ she insisted, but her granddaughter took it to heart.

“The little girl always believed in them, even if she wouldn’t admit it. She discovered her grandmother’s stories are true and became her secret keeper. She even met Master Fu, who was kind to the girl, and who was hesitant about keeping the miraculouses so concentrated in one city, but saw a spark in a certain young man and handed the butterfly over to him.

“At this point, the peacock had been lost for a while,” Plagg added off-handedly, with the usual attitude to which he approached Nino’s kwami. “That one’s another long, long story. You’ll have to ask Duusu if you’re curious, and it only proves he’s more trouble than he’s worth. Anyway, the lovely lady, now a grandmother, retired after living a relatively happy life, despite its rocky start. She went to Monaco, because money was no issue. You know, half of that wealth will go to the granddaughter one day.”

_What a coincidence,_ Adrien thought to himself at the mention of Monaco. He let Plagg continue talking, although there was a gleam in the cat’s eye that was more than just the usual unaffectedness.

“The grandmother left, but her granddaughter elected to stay in Paris. Her entire life was here, even if the person who loved her the most wasn’t anymore. And she had a promising career, and her days spent hanging around Master Fu’s place had earned her a new friend, the new owner of the butterfly miraculous. Over the years they made a pact, and decided to try to find the lost one—the peacock miraculous. I don’t know what happened exactly, as I was only there for one part of it, and had the rest recounted to me. I know for a fact that the pair succeeded, and fell in love along the way. It was the worst thing that could have happened.

“Not the love part,” Plagg quickly amended. “That’s just you humans and your emotions or whatever. Finding the miraculous was the worst thing that could have happened, because… because… when her grandmother passed away at a ripe old age of 98, the little girl, who was now a young adult, was left to go through her affects. She found a certain silver ring her grandmother always wore opposite her wedding ring. She gave the ring back to Master Fu, because she sure as heck didn’t want it, and she knew we get into very dangerous territory when magic runs in families. Powerful, but dangerous. The girl was more than worthy, but the ring was returned to the Guardian to await its next owner. Some boring stuff happens, and the girl got married to her partner in crime, retired from her modeling career and had a kid.”

Adrien had recalled his own childhood visits to Monaco and the rest of the Riviera, and as Plagg continued with his story, the rest of the pieces fell together like magnets. “The granddaughter’s name was Blanche.” Saying the words out loud felt like getting the wind knocked out of him. “You knew my mom. Your previous owner was Grandma Élodie. You knew my dad too.”

Plagg nodded. “Your father has always been troubled. The type of moneyed, neglected sort Gothic romances love. I know because Ellie ate them up as her guilty pleasure,” Plagg drawled. “Your mom was a bright light to him. He worshiped her. Then, their past turned back to bite them.”

“You see, to find the peacock miraculous, they had made enemies,” Plagg explained. “They had found it, and won it in a game. It was in the hands of… let’s call them keepers, because even the darkest kwami wouldn’t want to touch them, much less bind them,  Without meaning to, Blanche, who had tricked the miraculous away from those keepers, had put a target on her head. It just took a while to reach her.”

Plagg regarded Adrien cautiously. Adrien thought it was a little late for the kwami to be concerned about how well the news was being received. He nodded at Plagg to continue, because he _needed_ to hear the end of it.

“She was poisoned, you know. The peacock miraculous, stolen. Luckily, they didn’t know about any of the others. Hawkmoth went to get it back. He succeeded, which is how it wound up in that safe again, but he had become tainted in the process. Hawkmoth didn’t even kill anyone. There was an idiot who picked it up and tried to bind with it without Duusu’s approval. I’ll warn you now that the peacock bites are very strong. Gabriel didn’t have to do anything but play fetch. This time, he didn’t give the miraculous back to Master Fu. Instead, Hawkmoth kept it, as a reminder of all their adventures together. It would break her heart to know what he became.”

Adrien unclenched his fists and hurriedly wiped tears out of the corner of his eyes. “How long have you known? Why did you tell me just now?”

“I’ve always known,” Plagg admitted. He sounded almost remorseful, if there were such a thing. “There is a reason why I don’t like people, or emotions, or pasts. Everything becomes too complicated. Besides you have enough on your plate. You didn’t need to know. It would only upset you. Granted, given Master Fu’s selection criteria, he had no idea who you were related to. Heck, I had no idea until your father finally showed up on the screen of a tablet being carried around by that PA. By then, it was too late.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Adrien croaked.

“Because you asked about my past hosts, and I figured this one would interest you the most,” Plagg reasoned. “The miraculous running in families is dangerous, and needs to be avoided at all costs. Guess that makes you doubly dangerous.”

“Would you have told me if I hadn’t asked?!”

“I would have told you if the situation had come up,” Plagg said logically. “And now it has. Didn’t you ever wonder how your parents met?”


End file.
